UIC Barcelona has a clear commitment to promote the internationalization and teaching innovation of the university education that it offers. This is why during the 2020-2021 academic year, COIL was announced. This is the pedagogical methodology known as Collaborative Online International Learning, an initiative that allows UIC Barcelona students to work together with students from universities around the world on projects assessed as part of their subjects.

COIL also helps bring the experience of global learning closer to a wider range of students, regardless of their geographic location. Likewise, this methodology is gaining momentum at the University, as more and more teachers are interested in learning about it with the aim of applying it in their classes.

At the beginning of March two training courses were developed for all PDI staff at UIC Barcelona. With the dean of Faculty of Humanities, Judith Urbano in the role of instructor, the sessions were attended by a total of 15 teachers from the Faculty of Communication Sciences,  Economic and Social Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Dentistry and Education Sciences. Among the teachers and attendees interested in the COIL training there are also some PDIs from the Experience Campus: university training aimed at people over 50 years of age.

The 7 and 9 March sessions were in-person at both campuses, each of which lasted approximately four hours. The key points addressed were:

• Learn what COIL is and how it can be implemented in a classroom.
• Know what types of COIL exist internationally at university level.
• Know what tools are available for implementing this teaching methodology.
• How to design a COIL project (case study).
• What possible problems (and subsequent solutions) teachers can find when implementing this methodology.
• Sharing of good practices and experiences of PDIs who have already implemented a COIL project.
   

The training sessions were promoted and organised by the International Relations Service and the University's Innovation and Educational Quality Service (SIQE), and were well-received by those attending. In addition, Bertram Muller, lecturer of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, was present to witness the Sant Cugat Campus session, and Marta Mas and Nina Magomedova, lecturers of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, witnessed the session at the Barcelona Campus.